


Behind the Eye of the Tiger

by Crescent_River



Category: Original Work
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cat/Human Hybrids, Character Death, Depression, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Emotionless Character, Gen, Heavy Angst, Human Trafficking, Hybrids, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mild Language, No lesbians were harmed in the making of this story, Partner Betrayal, Physical Abuse, Psychological Horror, Restraints, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide, idk how to tag, this is really fucked up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:14:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28228203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crescent_River/pseuds/Crescent_River
Summary: Hybrids are captured and trafficked for money, Naomi is one of these hybrids. What happens when she finds someone who is worth fighting for once again in the same situation as her.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)





	Behind the Eye of the Tiger

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Human trafficking, self-harm, depression/mental illness, eating disorders (kinda), abuse, and suicide. PLZ LEAVE IF ANY OF THESE MAKE YOU TRIGGERED OR UNCOMFORTABLE. 
> 
> Let me know what you think, it is my first story I am publishing!

I stared out of the small one-way window set into the grey of my room. More of a stall, all grey concrete with a waxy mattress and thin blanket in one of the corners. The one nice thing in the room was the one by one foot window facing the outside, where I could watch the sky with birds soaring within it. How I wish I could join them.

I sigh through my nose and wrap my worn grey sweater around myself more securely to try to keep out the damp chill that covered everything and everyone in this building. I curl within myself more on my thin mattress, my fluffy lynx ears flattened to my brown hair in an effort to stay hidden. It was useless, I am in HTC anyway and no one even knew where I was. Not that they cared in the beginning anyway.  
I lift my head when the single door that locked from the outside is wrenched open and another mattress and blanket are thrown in along with another hybrid. The man who had thrown both in sneered at me.

“We found a friend for you, hybrid.” I look at him with my amber eyes, slitted pupils observing him. Naomi. Naomi is my name, idiot, and it's not my fault scientists combined my DNA with one of an animal. I look at the wall for the hundredth time that hour, then at my new ‘friend’. She seems very young, sixteen or seventeen at the most, she has on a sweater like me but in what I believe was a pastel blue, it looked as though she wears it often from the slightly frayed cuffs. She has black hair, eyes the shade of lighter coffee with slitted pupils like me, and a compact face. Her eyes are round and clear still with a spark in them.  
She straightens herself and notices my curled figure in the other corner, watching her keenly. She looks right in my slitted pupil eyes and breaks into a smile. Ah, probably an optimist, that won’t last long here. I tilt my head at her taking a new interest in the optimist. My eyes flit to her head and notice small black cat ears poke out, turning slightly. Probably one of the first ones the scientists made since she’s a cat. Wonder how long it took to track her down if she is only coming now. I wrack my brains to try and remember who was the first hybrid that came out to the public who was a black cat, they never made the same animal twice. Nyah? Maya? Mei? M, something with an M. 

“Mia.” I blurt out and her head swivels to look at me.  
“Yes?” She raises her eyebrows. “That is certainly my name, and yours is?”  
“Naomi,” I answer back simply, nothing more is needed here. While names are irrelevant for the ‘staff’, everyone still clings to that small identifying piece of information. 

“Do you know where we are?” I nod to her question. Taking a deep breath, not looking forward to spilling the beans on this pure soul.  
“HTC. Hybrid Trafficking Capital, one of the largest in the world.”  
“So we are?”  
“In hybrid trafficking, being bought, sold, and traded like cattle, even though we are still human technically. These people seem to think otherwise because we get treated less than humans, more like the animals we got turned into.” I give her a wry smile at the end of the talk of reality, her expression falling but lifting again at a thought inside her head. 

“So no one knows where we are,” said Mia. I nod my head.  
“And no one cares, they think we are strange, I see their point.” I point up at my second pair of ears. She frowns going into a small pout.  
“I still have people who care for me. My family will be looking for me, I know they will.” I huff and turn away once again.  
“That makes one of us then.” I play with the long sleeves of the hoodie which my arms and body drown in. I lost weight, probably not a good sign.  
“What happened to your family?” she asks. I sigh and let my body relax on the thin mattress. If I will never get out anyway, why don’t pour your pitiful life on this innocent person who will get crushed like the others here if she stays too long like the rest of them? Oh and like me, a soul with no purpose anymore.  
“I had a stable job and a friend who I thought, actually thought, cared. My family didn’t care for me then, we never agreed so I cut off connections. Well, they cared enough to sell me to some scientists who were trying to combine human and animal DNA into one for who knows what reason. Well, obviously it worked on me. Lynx DNA is now part of me and there is nothing I can do to change that. Once I got out, I was fired from my job, no one wants a science experiment working for them. I was homeless for a while, surviving on my animal instincts and the generosity of that one friend. Until the HTC got a tip-off, came, drugged me and brought me to be sold around three weeks ago.” I pull back one of the sleeves of the hoodie to reveal a metal bracelet with the number 907. I tap it with one of my slim fingers.  
“Put trackers on us like animals, they also have the power to release an electric shock powerful enough to knock us out. Oh and almost no one cares what we are here in this city. It's not private news that this is a trafficking settlement here.” I push down the sleeve and pull up the other running a finger at the horizontal scars and slashes I had carved there not long ago with my very own claws in a last attempt to keep some of my sanity.

“There is still hope, my sister is a police officer and my family has several lawyers, she will find a way to get us out.” I scoff a little at this remark.  
“And if I get out where would I go? My one and only friend sold me out, I lost my job, my family made me become this thing. If I get out I will just land in another one of these places. I have nowhere to go.” Mia shifts a little on the mattress.  
“You can come with me, we have more than enough space in our family.” I shift away from her shaking my head. I don’t want to get out, I want to end, I am done being a burden in this world to both me and others. Our little chat was interrupted by the door unlocking and being ground open.  
“You both have a potential buyer, come on, let's see if they want you disgusting animals, that's all you are useful for after all.” It took all my willpower not to release the claws that rested under my fingernails or transform into my animal form and claw his throat not for my sake but for Mia's soft heart. 

We were walked down another grey hall, harsh fluorescent lights flickering around us. We hear small sobs from a couple of stalls where other hybrids were kept. We were on the twenty-second floor, the building was fuller than ever. Not a good sign, if they have plenty of Hybrids, an auction will happen soon. Hopefully, I will be gone before that.  
We are put into a room with two metal chairs. Wordlessly we sit down and restraining belts get locked in place. I’m not really paying attention. A tall girl older than me walks into the room. She resembles Mia but looks more mature and has blue eyes.  
“Faith!” Mia said trying to run to her but couldn't because of the belt-like thing strapped her to the chair. 

“Hello, Mia.” She smiles and envelops her sibling in a warm hug. I just watch with a blank face, feeling sadness pool within me. So that's how it is to have a family, someone who won’t throw you out like a piece of trash after you have served your purpose. Faith turns her eyes on me then and frowns a little. I look right back in her eyes, unflinching. Gently she walks over and picks up my right arm and pushes down the sleeve. The horizontal slashes and scars get revealed before I can pull my hand back. I pull it back glaring at her, my short spotted tail hitting against the metal chair repeatedly giving away my slight fury. I hate people touching me, even if it was in a friendly manner.

Steely calm takes over Faith’s face. She walks over to a phone and talks into it, I don’t bother paying attention. A person brings a scale and a folder to the door. Faith motions me over to the scale. I step onto it wordlessly. What do I have to lose?  
A ninety-five appears. I stare at it blankly and hear a sharp intake of breath. I was one hundred fifteen pounds before, as a petite thin female.  
“What have you been eating?” Faith asks, voice holding silent anger. I think about it a little.  
“Whatever the person gives me.”  
“And when was that the last time?” I need to stop and think again about this question.  
“Two days ago?” Faith looks even more furious at this confession. 

“Well, hopefully you will be out of here in two days. This thing needs to stop. I have stopped other establishments but never as big as this one. I just need to have significant evidence.” I tilt my head again at the girl, surprised that she even cares about a stranger who she met seven minutes ago.  
Mia is taken back to our stall but I am kept in the room. I stare at the door, thinking about Faith, and how a person can be so caring to a total stranger. The door gets opened once again and another girl walks in. She is in her early twenties, carries a designer handbag, she pushes up her cat-eye sunglasses and her eyes scan me in her makeup laden face. This person screams spoiled and snotty. I resist the urge to curl my lip in disgust.  
“This is the prettiest and most exotic hybrid you have correct?” She calls a person behind her. They nod.  
“Lynx hybrid, the other exotic one we have is a panda but you specifically asked for a feline.” She dismisses them with a wave of her two-inch red acrylic nail adorned hand. She places her bag on the floor and walks over, grabbing my face harshly. I flinch when she pokes and tugs slightly on my ears.  
“I want this one.” She says calling the attendant back in.  
“She will be ready by tomorrow anytime, come pick her up once you have made the full payment.” 

“Yes, I will deposit the 1.3 million when I come to pick her up. Oh and also Hybrid, I am your new mistress, Anna. One last thing, let the animal have a full meal, I don’t want a sack of bones and skin in my mansion.”  
I am once again shoved into my room. I sit down and my shoulders shake unintentionally. I am being bought, then I will live like a slave for the rest of my life, having no say in it. I will make sure that never happens. This. Will. End. 

“Something bad happened didn’t it, now and before this ever happened,” Mia asks from the other corner in the small room. I just nod, feeling now strangely empty and detached from the world. I looked at her. She still has the spark inside of her that I don’t have anymore. I barely had any fight left.  
“You said you had a friend, what happened to them?” I blink turning my head to one side and hear a small pop from my neck.  
“They were one of the only people I trusted. When I got kicked out of my job and family supported me. Until they realized they could make a small fortune by telling hybrid traffickers where I was. They did, gave them my exact location even let them in the house willingly to drug me and shove me in a box. People value money above anything else, money is power.” I rub one of the temples like trying to repress a headache. I don’t look up when I hear the door open, I know they have come to deliver the small bland meals that we get when they feel like feeding us. I look and see a rather large portion next to me. I look away from it feeling sick inside.  
Instead of eating the larger portion, I give it to Mia despite her protests. She still has some fight left, I want to help a person one last time before tomorrow. I curl up on the mattress, a thin blanket over me looking at Mia across from me who was looking out the window at the stars. I follow her gaze and see the bright constellations since air pollution is no longer a thing. 

The last thing I think about is that we stopped global warming but not human trafficking, which grew and became more common since then. It was even embraced in some regions, not rare in large cities like this one.  
I close my eyes sweeping off to a place where things could be better. Perhaps. 

. . .

I wake to another plate of food being placed in front of me and the muttering of the ‘staff’ person. Once again I give it to Mia, knowing I am beyond repair by now. I hear multiple cracks in my back when I stand up. I rub my eyes and pull back one of my sleeves once again to see how my cuts were healing. I extend one of my claws from under my fingernails and touch it to the flesh. Quick and sure I slash it across. I relish the pain, it brings me back to reality where I am. I do a graceful backbend, hearing several cracks, and stand up again. 

“Why do you do that?” I look up to see Mia frowning at me.  
“Do what?”  
“Cut yourself.”  
“It helps me keep my sanity. You can’t lock someone in a room for weeks and expect them to be perfect in the head.”  
“But how does it help, it just makes you feel pain.”  
“Exactly. Pain is a thing we can’t ignore so I use it to distract myself from the nightmare that is reality.”  
“Why are you so emotionless?”  
“Emotions are the first thing to go here. It goes from desperation, to hopefulness, to fury, to acceptance to depression. I am at the tail end of that cycle ”  
“Don’t give up.” I smile sadly at her. I already have.

Sunlight streams through the small one-way window into the clotted dusty air, telling me it is turning into late afternoon. The sky is very pretty.  
I pull my fingers through my dull brown hair, braiding it back from my thin face. Carefully I straighten my clothes and brush off any dust that might have collected there in the night. The passcode is punched into the door and wrenched open once again to reveal the same man that threw Mia in here yesterday. Ah how I hate him.  
“Oi Hybrid, your new owner has come to see you. Time to sell you and actually get some use out of you” Hybrid. Animal. Freak. Unnatural. Lab-rat. Experiment. Servent. Pet. Why can't people just see I am still human inside? I walk toward the man and instead of following him I extend all my claws and slash them across his face and throat. He falls back crying out, blood flowing freely from the deep slashes I had gouged in his untouched flesh that never faced a day of torment. I smile slightly at this, insanity flickering in my eyes, finally taking over.

“That was for Mia.” I spit out at him, and seeing my chance at last, I bolt to the door that goes to the roof, identifying it from the red label. I try it and thankfully it is unlocked, they were clearly not expecting someone to go up here. I fly up the few flights of stairs leading to the actual roof, using my feline balance and fast feet.  
Hooking one of my claws under the bracelet, pulling it off with my reinforced muscles, not wanting to get shocked with a couple of hundred volts and get dragged back. They tried keeping the electricity a secret but it was obvious when I had seen another Hybrid try getting on the roof but to get shocked and pulled back. Never saw that one again.

They are right behind me, I can hear it. I focus and transform into the thing I wasn't supposed to be, a lynx, letting the bracelet clatter to the floor in the process before I hear the fizz and spark of electricity.  
Transforming into a human or as close to one as I am considered, I open the last door I hopefully will have to open. Standing on the roof, feeling unfiltered air hit my face, and the bright sunlight shine through my pale skin, I smile slightly. Not a bad place to die.  
I step calmly to the edge and look down. Twenty-two stories, the height is beautiful, it looks like freedom to me. I look down into the busy street below, the pedestrians totally oblivious to what is happening in this building, only worrying about their petty lives. I hear several shouts behind me. The ‘staff’ from this building come out behind me, probably thinking of a way to make me step down and come back to that hell hole. Jokes on them. 

“Come back Hybrid, you belong to us. You have nowhere to go, give up” I smile at them coldly, stepping back even more. Try me, human. A small crowd has gathered below, looking at the commotion on the roof since it made quite a bit of noise with the shouts and alarms.  
“My name is Naomi, not Hybrid. And I only belong to myself, not anyone else. This evil ends here and now. Wings of freedom are for everyone to use” I say clearly, loud enough to even carry down into the street below. Without even another moment's hesitation, I step over the ledge. Feeling the glorious wind rush around me, the welcoming arms of concrete below coming to meet me in it's freeing embrace. I hope this will be enough evidence for your case Faith. Let my death bring a new age. One last wish. I think as my body hits the ground from what feels like a third person, hearing all the bones snap and my mind dull.  
Freedom at last.

. . . 

Three years have passed since the day of the death of Naomi Willow Eve, which is now known as National Hybrid Day. She had gotten her last wish, hybrids were now accepted into society and every hybrid trafficking plant had been shut down, all made possible by Faith, who had won her case in the highest court of the country. But Naomi was recognized as the person who had started the change from all the large cities to the smallest villages, known as a hero to many.  
Mia and Faith had come to her grave, holding a wreath of olive branches. It was crammed with people but the crowd separated to let the last two people who had known Naomi pass. They placed the wreath on the grave. Many had brought gifts, they ranged from cakes to candles to flowers, but had respectfully left a space for a wreath clear.

The silver words on the gravestone stood out against the dark black flecked granite. Wings of freedom are for everyone to use. These are the words she had spoken right before she jumped and had become widely known.  
Hand in hand, both humans and hybrids bowed their heads to the grave. Peace at last.


End file.
